Utah State University Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Sydney O’Shay is studying the way communication impacts substance addiction and, more specifically, how family members are affected by the social stigmas associated with substance abuse. In recent months, Professor O’Shay has seen her research published in a top-ranked journal in her field and received an award to develop a scale to measure how individuals can use communication strategies to navigate stigma.
Sydney O’Shay received her PhD from Wayne State University in 2021. Her research focuses on the construction of stigma communication in healthcare and family contexts. Her work has been recognized with the Inclusive Scholarship Award (2022) from the Health Communication Interest Group of the Central States Communication Association and has been published in journals such as Health Communication, the Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication, Communication Studies, and New Media & Society, among others.
